The invention relates to wall construction and, in particular, to a system utilizing factory built panels and associated hardware for constructing curved walls.
Architects and/or building owners may specify curved interior walls to give rooms, partitions, corridors and the like a unique look, to create a focal point in the interior of the building, or otherwise depart from ordinary planar walls. Where the walls are to be finished with a hard finish other than plaster or drywall, it has often been the practice to construct a curved wall with custom millwork. This custom work, under most circumstances, is costly, because of the skilled labor and custom made panels or planks which, typically, are employed to create the curved surfaces. Consequently, architects and builders are restrained, due to the costs, from freely using their creativity in designing non-planar walls. Moreover, because each custom installation is just that, the final fit and finish of a custom built curved wall may be less than what is originally specified by the architect, thereby leading to further difficulties and controversies.
The present invention provides a system of pre-manufactured panels and integrated hardware that produces concave or convex walls with a consistent high-quality appearance. The system utilizes specially fabricated rectangular panels of a height and width suitable for the customer""s application. The panels are uniquely cut with dado slots on their rear faces to obtain horizontal flexibility and vertical stiffness. The panels have two opposed edges, normally the horizontal edges, kerfed to accept a spline and wall attachment clip while the other edges, typically the vertical edges, are square cut. The outer decorative face of a panel can take a variety of forms such as wood veneer, high-pressure laminate, metal veneer, or other known finishes.
In accordance with the invention, the panels are interlocked to one another and retained against a sub-wall by special clips situated at the perimeter of each panel. Preferably, the spline used to join horizontal edges of adjacent panels is a flexible material such as extruded PVC so that it is readily manually bent on site into the radius of the wall. The vertical edges of adjacent panels are interconnected by joining them to vertical main rails with the use of panel clips secured to the rear faces of the panels. The main rails are attached to the sub-wall or framework and the panels, in turn, are fixed to the main rails by the panel clips. Advantageously, the slotted design of the panels as well as the character of the main rails, panel clips, retainer clips, and splines, enable the panel system to be used with any desired radius of curvature, both convex or concave above a certain minimum specified radius. Thus, the wall can have a changing radius and/or a serpentine configuration, as desired. As used herein, the term xe2x80x9ccylindricalxe2x80x9d is meant to describe a plane curved about one or more parallel axes.
The disclosed panel system affords the look of custom millwork with high quality fit and finish, but at substantially lower cost than custom millwork. Additionally, the system enables a wall to be installed with less time and less skill than required by custom millwork. The unique hardware assures consistent alignment between adjacent panels without exposed fasteners or clips to achieve a handsome, quality appearance.